Former banker behind chipmaker Renesas aims for value of 100 billion dollars

A decade ago, Renesas Electronics was under state control and losing money. The Japanese chipmaker is now worth $35 billion and is aiming for a market value of around $100 billion by 2030 thanks to a series of overseas acquisitions.

Behind the deals is former Merrill Lynch banker Hidetoshi Shibata, who has been CEO for five years and expects new businesses in India and AI-enabled microcontrollers to help the company double its annual revenue to a record $20 billion by the end of the decade. His goal of tripling the company’s valuation to between 16 trillion yen ($99 billion) and 17 trillion yen comes as a new wave of enthusiasm for AI is driving the chipmaker’s shares behind Toyota, Honda and Nissan to their highest since the global financial crisis.

Renesas, which was formed from the chip divisions of NEC, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, was the world’s third-largest chipmaker in 2009 after Intel and Samsung Electronics. But its fortunes faded along with its Japanese customers. In addition, damage to a key factory in the March 2011 earthquake in Japan prompted automakers to reduce their dependence on a single supplier, and Renesas soon had to make way for rival NXP Semiconductors.